Mother-In-Law ---- Fourfold !

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Many years ago I fell on my elbow when I was getting off my bike. It hurt only for a short while and I thought that was it. Yet, after some years, my elbow hurt again and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon. He made an x-ray and discovered that the babysitter's elbow - what a funny term for the tip of the elbow! - had broken when I fell and not healed perfectly. He wrote a transferral to a physiotherapist who was to work on my arm. I knew the man from former treatments. He has his studio on the same floor as the orthopaedic surgeon. Very convenient for both. His treatment was successful. After some years my elbow got bored and piped up again so-to-speak. The same procedure as last time. The orthopaedic surgeon gave me a transferral without x-raying my elbow again as nothing had changed. Then he retired. His successor is the former head of the orthopaedic department of the local hospital, a formerly important and influential man. In Germany, the nickname for such people is 'half-gods in white'. Whyever didn't he retire when his time had come but take over the practice of a 'simple' orthopaedic surgeon? At the end of this tale you'll know the answer. When my elbow needed another treatment some years later, I went to him. He had all my papers as he had 'inherited' the former surgeon's files. I told my story and made it very clear that I only needed the referral as nothing had changed. (This has to do with the way I'm insured. I'm not going to explain the details). *Of course*, he insisted on another x-ray as x-raying brings in good money. I pulled a face. He gave me a supicious look. I said, "I don't really want to have another x-ray. I had one not so long ago for a different matter and, anyway, nothing has changed with my elbow." He pumped himself up and then it burst out of him, "You're just like my mother-in-law. She also has to moan about everything!" I was dumbfounded and flabbergasted. Although I'm usually quick at repartee, I didn't know what to say. The elbow was x-rayed and I went to the physiotherapist next door. I told him the story at once. He laughed. "His mother-in-law? Which one? He's got four!" I asked him how he knew such a detail. Of course, he shouldn't have told me but we know each other a bit. He had massaged him because of back pain and they had exchanged some private news during the sessions. They could have talked about anything under the sun, but if his four marriages and his four resulting mothers-in-law were a topic, there must be a reason. I wish him all the worst with the four ladies for his rudeness against me!